Merck said in a press release this sales increase was ‘primarily due to the ongoing commercial launch in China, higher demand in Europe, as well as the timing of customer purchases in Latin America.’

Despite the positive international increase, the HPV vaccine coverage rates in the USA are reported to be ‘far behind other young adult vaccines’, according to new research.

"In this cohort study containing more than 7.5 million teenagers in the USA, the HPV vaccine coverage among girls increased from 37.8 percent in 2011 to 53.6 percent in 2016," said Szu-Ta Chen, MD, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors.

Additionally, HPV vaccine coverage among young men increased from 4.8 percent to 45.1 percent by age 15.

"Despite the increase in uptake, the HPV vaccine coverage varied substantially between states and remains behind the Healthy People 2020 goal of 80 percent."